However, despite President Obama releasing his long form birth certificate, just as birthers have been asking him to do for years, many birthers are now insisting the document is a forgery and are alleging some grand conspiracy on the part of President Obama and officials in Hawaii.

What do you think of the birther movement? Will they ever come to the realization President Obama is in fact a United States citizen?

Yeahhh, it’s the MEDIA that’s the problem. . .Birthers had NOTHING to do with promulgating the whole birtherism thing.

Good “catch”, Ray.

However, if by media you mean Fixed News, Rush Limbaugh and the rightwing/wingnut talk radio universe, PatriotActionNetwork WorldNetDaily and rest of the crazed, histrionic and racist blogosphere/online rightwing political community, you may actually have a point.

Yeah, you are holding President Obama to a different standard, because I don’t remember you folks caterwauling about why George W. Bush didn’t release his long form birth certificate for everyone to see.

Where’s his birth certificate, and how do we know for sure he was born in the U.S.?

For that matter, why wasn’t President Ronald Reagan asked to produce his long form birth certificate?

The fact is, conservatives have been holding President Obama to a different standard since he became a candidate for president, and I can’t help but wonder why.

Dan Rather had it right in 2004, Bush was in all respects a deserter. He failed to report for duty for his last three years of National Guard duty. NOT one single sheet of paper can be produced to contradict that fact.

He was at the time a coke user and a drunk. But hey…..he’s a Republican and he found Christ.

Will they ever come to the realization President Obama is in fact a United States citizen?

The one’s who believe he isn’t a citizen will never be convinced. Anyone willing to say that the newspaper announcement was planned as a fake in advance and that the current birth certificate has proved that they will literally believe any conspiracy, no matter how ridiculous, in order to justify their position that Obama is not a legitimate president.

My bigger problem is with people who don’t actually believe the birther issue, but use it as a tool to pander to those who are birthers, and as a way to embarrass the president. I remain firmly convinced that the walking bad hair day falls under this category.

“My bigger problem is with people who don’t actually believe the birther issue, but use it as a tool to pander to those who are birthers, and as a way to embarrass the president.”

Mine, as well.

“I remain firmly convinced that the walking bad hair day falls under this category.”

President Obama knows how to turn a phrase, doesn’t he? ‘Carnival barkers’. Perfect. “[W]alking bad hair day” is a close second, though.

That said, Trump has always been a living, breathing, self-promoting jackass. Republican politians, in general, and the Republican leadership, in particular, with their intentionally equivocal, non-stand, “I take him at his word” BS. Boehner is a good example of the true failure and absolute cynicism of Republican leadership in this regard when, after issuing the stadard, “I take him at his word”, canard, refused to unambiguously advise the Republican members of the House of Representatives to cut the birtherism crap out, famously saying, “It’s not my place to tell others what to think.”

Yes, John, in running the House of Representatives, I’m sure that THOSE are words by which you live and lead with respect to all other matters.

Sidebar – Whenever I see Boehner talking, it seems like the corners of his mouth do this strange-ass thing that reminds me of a guy in an old gangster movie, someone like James Cagney, saying, “See, you’re gonna do it, ya mutt, and LIKE it, see”. Anybody else notice that?

While we did question John McCain when he was running, we’re still not sure if he was a ‘natural born citizen’ or not because of that gray area. We have Obama’s proof of birth in Hawaii, so we’re going to go after his college transcripts next. If we go and see he actually has good grades, we will go after his primary school transcripts instead. If you right wingers see that, you’ll simply just ask for his credit cards and demand to see what he spends on. It will just continue and you frankly won’t care because this proof will never be enough for your side.

Furthermore, the Constitutional scrutiny as you claim is so vague in the first place, that’s why there’s an argument over it constantly. If this was the case, a lot of the past presidents we had likely shouldn’t have been President either.

“It’s a Constitutional requirement……so why all the excitement? Except for maybe our President mocking it.”

Your purported “why all the excitement” cluelessness strikes me as nothing more than another example of birther or birther-pandering disingenuousness.

In plain and simple terms, Rich, and as you surely know, if he was white, it wouldn’t have come up in the first place.

The birth certificate “issue” was NEVER really the issue.

Just look at what has happened since President Obama released his long form birth certificate, something which the birthers said was “all he had to do”, to resolve the issue. The birthers simply regrouped, and moved the goalposts, just as they have all along.

Birtherism, the birth certificate “issue”, all of it was nothing more than code for racism, pure and simple.

The “issue” was debunked time and again over a period of two years. Evidence was provided time and again. And you WONDER why the President, and every other reasonable, intelligent person in the world, mocked it?!

The “excitement”, Rich, your self-serving characterization of it notwithstanding, was over the extent to which people like you, people who just can’t wrap their brains around the idea that you have an African-American President, would go to push the “issue” of whether or not President Obama was really an American, not the fact that the President, finally and with good humor, laid the “issue” to rest, playfully mocking it, and the people who promoted it, as he did so.

The mainstream media only sees this as a profit and a money maker to get people enraged, engaged and passionate. But most of all, clueless to the real issue that bubbling if you watch C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, or C-SPAN3. They likely know this is a nonissue that was solved in 2008 but continue feeding the fire because it gets good ratings by tapping into a small minority.

Mainstream Media despite people crying all the time it’s too far liberal or it’s too far conservative is wrong about one thing. It’s neither. It’s statist and a propaganda tool. What they care about is keeping the people worried about the non issues like this and not the fact our government is arguing over this instead of focusing on the subject of jobs, the economy, and other things it’s supposed to. The fact Republicans in debates keep bringing this up when they’re talking in Congress on the subject of jobs is a tell tale sign. This is only being brought up and being made a big issue because they want to hide the incompetence of this country now. Many Republicans (not all, but a majority of them) and a good amount of Democrats are in the pockets of mainstream media. They don’t want it to be revealed that they are not doing their job.

They don’t go on about that, exactly like they didn’t go on how they were not giving help to the rescuers of 9/11 and victims as well until the Daily Show actually revealed how all these supporters of True Patriots voted. It’s like how disasters hit our country and we forget in a few days of what can take perhaps years to recover.

The birther movement was a nonissue made to make the Baby Boomers generation feel uneasy who are shocked at the ‘changes’ in their country. (Aka, more people who are not white.) Most of them are also unaware of the fact that the reason why they were predominantly white in the first place was because immigration was locked tight from after World War I to 1965. So there is a perception that blacks, hispanics, all these other minorities simply have more kids and that makes them ‘defective’. This is similar to what Irish, Scottish, Germans, Welsh, and Nordic Americans faced. That they were naturally more ‘savage’ or ‘violent’ than other people. Even Catholics received this kind of discrimination, which is why John F. Kennedy was demonized.

I don’t think the mainstream media believes it – they just want to invoke emotions so people can continue watching it. That being said, it’s even more disgusting if you think about it this way.

“I’m always amazed at some people’s ability to spin nothing into whatever suits their fancy.”

I guess you would know, Rich.

Try re-reading my comment from 12:43 pm, this time without the disingenuous partisan blinders on, all right?

For the record, Rich, acting like you don’t get even the simplest things still makes you look obtuse.

Word to the wise, RP: “Better to remain silent and only be thought the fool, than to [write] and remove all doubt.”

In any event, Rich, it appears that you would be better off in some rightwing echo chamber where everybody else doesn’t “get it”, either, or maybe perched near the radio listening to that fat-ass rightwing hero, Russ (“lucky I had a great attorney or I’d be in prison”) Limbaugh. Give it some thought, huh? Rightwing (“I don’t get it”) stupidity, feigned or real, just doesn’t play very well ’round here.

It is vague no matter how you look at it or spin it. What specifies as a ‘natural born citizen’? Is it being born on the United States soil? If that’s the case, many people who have become president and many candidates at that would have never become president on principle. Is it having only American Citizenship? Once again, I know there were some Presidents that had dual citizenship. Is it having both parents American? Oh dear, that seems to also disqualify a lot of presidents as well.

Currently, Title 8 of the U.S. Code fills in the gaps left by the Constitution. Section 1401 defines the following as people who are “citizens of the United States at birth:”
► Anyone born inside the United States ( There is an exception in the law — the person must be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. This would exempt the child of a diplomat, for example, from this provision. )
► Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person’s status as a citizen of the tribe
► Any one born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S.
► Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national
► Any one born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year
► Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21
► Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)
► A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.

Anyone falling into these categories is considered natural-born, and is eligible to run for President or Vice President. These provisions allow the children of military families to be considered natural-born, so McCain should be considered natural-born citizen just like Obama is considered one under these provisions.

The birther movement is a huge distraction and a total waste of time. These people need to wake up and start focusing on real issues and college records, birth certificates and all that other silliness is not what matters.

“It’s a Constitutional requirement……so why all the excitement? Except for maybe our President mocking it.”

Your purported “why all the excitement” cluelessness strikes me as nothing more than another example of birther or birther-pandering disingenuousness.

In plain and simple terms, Rich, and as you surely know, if he was white, it wouldn’t have come up in the first place.

The birth certificate “issue” was NEVER really the issue.

Just look at what has happened since President Obama released his long form birth certificate, something which the birthers said was “all he had to do”, to resolve the issue. The birthers simply regrouped, and moved the goalposts, just as they have all along.

Birtherism, the birth certificate “issue”, all of it was nothing more than code for racism, pure and simple.

The “issue” was debunked time and again over a period of two years. Evidence was provided time and again. And you WONDER why the President, and every other reasonable, intelligent person in the world, mocked it?!

The “excitement”, Rich, your self-serving characterization of it notwithstanding, was over the extent to which people like you, people who just can’t wrap their brains around the idea that you have an African-American President, would go to push the “issue” of whether or not President Obama was really an American, not the fact that the President, finally and with good humor, laid the “issue” to rest, playfully mocking it, and the people who promoted it, as he did so.

The reason why it’s a gray area now is because by narrowing it down to the qualifications of Obama not being enough, in result the birther movement is also narrowing down presidents and presidential candidates in the past. So it all depends on who you’re asking — if you ask by the actual definition — that is the actual real deal.

If you ask the birthers? All they will tell you is Obama is not an actual natural-born citizen. I had lunch with some folks today who claimed Obama’s birth certificate was a forgery. They had no evidence to bring to the table. They want the birth certificate to be fake, thus it is fake and they will continue to believe it’s a fake. These people work with a inverse scientific method: reaching a conclusion and then formulating a hypothesis that conforms to it.